Speed of Life
by lusiana88
Summary: Taking care of the living can be one of the hardest things of the world and she learned it on her own skin. Written with my great friend florry86, the best of the editors
1. This can't be true

While she was sipping her coffee, her pager went off. It had been quite an hectic morning at the Miami Dade Memorial and she had been absolutely glad to find ten minutes for a break. That's what she thought but it looked like her pager didn't agree with her.

The trip from the cafeteria to the ER wasn't that long, coffee cup forgotten on the table, her white coat fluttering along with her rapid steps. She had gotten used, again, to the speed of the-saving-lives-machine. It was really different from her previous job as pathologist at MDPD, her patients weren't emergencies there. She had her rhythm, appropriate and efficient, but this was a completely different thing. Her speed could be the thinnest layer between life and death here. And Alexx knew exactly she could not take that lightly. She hadn't done it when she had worked with dead people, not once, and she surely wasn't going start now .

Getting accustomed to this new family hadn't been that hard for her. Younger people used to see a mother in her sweet and loving manners and her great skills as a MD had helped her to be well accepted by other doctors. She was happy here but she hadn't absolutely forgotten where she belonged to and she was damn sure she wasn't going to do it. Part of her heart was left to MDPD but life had gone on. Everything had kept on working there even without her and she couldn't stay there looking at the past for too long. Dr. Alexx Woods had made her choice and, as always, she was going to go on with it.

Her slim figure appeared at the ER entry just in time to see the ambulance pulling up. Her trainees were already waiting for her there with the infos about the case.

"Police officer, Dr Woods. Breath loss, tachycardia. Lost consciousness before EMT's arrival."

Alexx just nodded seeing the gurney being rolled towards them.

"Female, 33 years old, unconcious, oximetry 80%, pulse 120, Systolic 150, Diastolic 100, not intubated yet"

The gurney was being pushed rapidly inside as the EMTs gave space to Alexx's team to work on the patient. Everything had to be done quickly. Alexx took her place at the head of the gurney and lowered her eyes to take a look. She hadn't expected what she saw.

"No." She managed to whisper.

Her trainees became blurry background noise.

"Dr. Woods? Where are we taking her?"

She kept on staring at that face, those closed eyes, waiting for she didn't know what. "This can't be true."she thought or maybe she said, she wasn't sure.

"...?"


	2. Crime scene

**Thanks you all for your reviews, they are really appreciated. Now that you know that, remember to click on the review button as soon as you finish reading this new chapter. ;P**

*****chapter 2*****

Her morning coffee had to be perfect and sweet. Everyone already knew how to recognize a no-coffee Calleigh and they usually tried to keep a safe distance from her, if they didn't want to loose any part of their body. Her brand new coffee machine was a good memory from Jake, a present he gave her right before he went undercover again. "I don't wanna have to deal with a cranky Calleigh again", he had said with his usual smirk. She smiled making her coffee. He always knew how to make her smile when they were together.

The smell was wonderful, Calleigh indulged in an extra spoon of sugar. A great way to start a new day. Her phone went off right when she was having her first taste of Haven. Rolling her eyes she checked the message. Homicide. Great. She had to hurry up. So much for a quite morning.

The following three hours, or so, went quite smoothly between processing the crime scene and following some hints. The victim was a doctor. A surgeon who worked at Miami Dade Memorial, but things worked up differently from what people knew or said. There were so many shadows in this case that it looked creepy to Calleigh's eyes. No. It wasn't giving her a good feeling. Not at all.

Ryan entered the layout room in great hurry, already holding the hummer keys. "Coming with me?"

Calleigh frowned rising her eyes from the evidence on the table. "If you tell me where, maybe we can talk about it, Ry!" she said teasingly.

"What if I talk to you about a certain drug dealer? Dr. Boyd's drug dealer..."

Now he had her attention. "He was an addicted?" she asked a bit surprised. "God, he was a medical doctor..."

"Yeah, Delko found some prints in the victim's house and ran then through CODIS. We have a Bruce Carter. 24. Heroine dealing and a nice list of other nice things. We put two and two together."

Calleigh smiled at the new hint. Maybe this could be easier than she thought. "Do we have an address?"

"Where do you think we are going?" Ryan said winking.

"Oh, so we have a date, Wolfe." Calleigh took off her lab coat and followed Ryan who was already leaving the room, her heels, as always, ticking on the hard floor.

The house wasn't actually a place to live in. Everything seemed placed there just for quick visits, just the necessary. No one was around and they had found the door cracked open. A look around wasn't going to harm. They couldn't touch anything because they didn't have a warrant for the house, but Calleigh kept her eyes wide open looking for something that could help them when they'd come back officially. Ryan was some steps forward holding his gun even if the house looked clear.

"I don't think he lives here."

"Me either" said Ryan seeing a pile of extremely old newspapers on the floor near an unmade bed.

"Where did you find this address, anyway?"

"IAB. They say he's usually around here."

"And IAB told you something about one of their investigations? That's new, I have to say!"

"They have been friendlier after all the H faking his death stuff. Don't know why, Cal. H has always his way." Ryan said smirking.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that!"

The first bullet pierced the air and broke a lamp quite close to Calleigh. "Ryan!?"

"Call for backup."

Calleigh dropped her kit and, while taking her gun out of its holster, dialed the HQ number "This is CSI Duquesne. We have a shooting at ..." She hid behind a piece of furniture that was in the way while making the call.

The second bullet hit the ceiling, making white powder fill the air. Calleigh couldn't see anyone and she hadn't understood where the shots came from. "Cal? Have you seen him?"

"No. I can see no one"

Other shots rang and Ryan went towards Calleigh taking her with him to a covered spot that, he thought, was safer. They were behind a corner where he could see if anyone moved around them, but it was impossible to be hit by the bullets which were still flying everywhere. "There is nobody here, Ryan. It's something automatic." The bullets were too many and they weren't even trying to get close to them. As a matter of fact, a few moments later an unreal silence fell in the room.

The way looked clear so Ryan moved from the spot, holding his gun tightly. "Stay there!" he told Calleigh, leaving her to get behind him.

He was a few feet from Calleigh when a sudden noise startled him. Fire. Maybe an explosion. Damn. There was fire everywhere and the door was far from them right now.

"Calleigh! You OK?" He couldn't see her, a thick wall of smoke was already between the two co-workers. The fire was moving so fast that he needed to make a choice as soon as possible. He heard her coughing and then she spoke. "I'm fine. We have to get out of here"

He saw her small figure moving, a shadow and he went for it. He covered his mouth with his light blue shirt sleeve going towards her and blindly finding her hand in the smoke. Ryan started running following the rays of light that went through the still slightly open door. Calleigh right behind him, running for dear life even if her too high heels weren't making it so easy.

Sirens could be heard already. They were almost safe. Almost.

**Ops, I didn't do it on purpose. I swear! It's not really a cliffhanger, come on! Don't be mad at me...ok...maybe it is. But it's interesting, isn't it? Reviews are highly appreciated. **


	3. Friendship

Safe. She could still feel the fear rising from the pit of her stomach, but she was safe. Her new blue blouse was stained and so were her pants, the light sweater was covered with ash…her hair was a mess. The locker room was empty, Ryan had just gone away and she could retrieve the clothes she had in her locker so that she could change for emergencies. Maybe she could consider it an emergency.

The fire had really shocked her. She was used to so many dangerous situations but the shaky feeling she had when she saw all that smoke fill the room was not something she had ever experienced in her life. Ryan had been good, he had actually dragged her out of that hell, that was more than good.

"You could talk about it with someone instead of staring at nothing forever."

Cal let out a yelp turning towards the voice's owner. "Nat? Do you want me dead? You scared the hell outta me, for God's sake."

"Actually I called you twice before, but you were really far in your mind"

A slight blush crept on Cal's checks. "Sorry"

"You know you can come and talk to me about anything, right?" Natalia asked tilting her head to the right in a tender manner. She could see how the accident at the scene had gotten to Calleigh. She was pale most of all, and she had been staring at her locker for how long? Twenty minutes?

"Of course, Nat."

"So?"

"So what?"

"Come on, Cal" Natalia said sitting on the bench and patting the space near her. "Tell me what happened." Calleigh chuckled obliging and sitting close to her friend. "You look like Alexx she always has her ways."

"Who do you think I learnt this from?" said Natalia, laughing. Calleigh smiled but then turned serious and lowered her eyes to her hands which were nervously fingering the collar of her clean blouse. "You know, I was scared. I mean, all that fire" Calleigh paused a moment swallowing trying to put her feelings together, "There was a lot of smoke and I couldn't see Ryan, I could just hear him but I felt so scared." Then she laughed ironically. "God, I look like a three years old baby..."

Natalia frowned and placed her right hand gently on Calleigh's shoulder. "Hey, it's not like you have no right to be shaken. You are human, sweetheart. No one is invincible."

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts, Cal. Stop right here and listen. You could have gotten really hurt in there so being scared is the least you can do. Allow that to yourself and allow your friends to show you that you are safe now."

"Thanks."

"No worries. I'm a friend. So hurry up and change, Tara is waiting for you in the morgue for the autopsy results."

Calleigh nodded smiling and went to her task.

Her meeting with Tara had been really fast, some ideas on the COD and then she had given her some DNA she had found under the victim's nails. She was back to Natalia in no time so she could process the samples. Calleigh busied herself inspecting her nails while Natalia run the results through CODIS.

"What did Tara say?"

"Nothing important for now."

"Nothing about that paleness of yours, a doctor must have noticed it."

"Maybe it isn't that important if she didn't say anything." Calleigh said with a smug smile. She was lying, Tara had been genuinely worried by her. But who better than Calleigh Duquesne could hide the fact that indeed she was really feeling uncomfortable at the moment?

"Oh, save it, Duquesne. You are the worst liar I have..." The beeping from the computer saved Calleigh from Natalia's tongue lashing.

"Colin Astor, assault. Good, I'm calling Eric." said Calleigh already on her way to the door. All Natalia could do was rolling her eyes. That girl was really an handful.


End file.
